Quincey Reese stories
9 Greensburg Salem High School students vie for ‘Mr. GS’ title in annual pageant fundraiser
Nine Greensburg Salem High School students will compete next month in a pageant raising money for the district’s student activities fund. This is the eighth year the district has held the “Mr. GS” competition. The show will open with an introduction video and a group dance before competitors face off...
Hempfield Area will replace 4 grass fields with synthetic turf following split vote by school board
Hempfield Area School District will spend nearly $5.4 million to replace four of its grass fields with synthetic turf following a divided vote by the school board Monday night. The district will place turf on its high school baseball, softball and multipurpose grass fields this summer. District officials cited rainy...
Penn Township art shop celebrates 25 years
Carrie Schramm is all in for another quarter century operating her Penn Township craft shop. In October, the Crafty Shack, located along Harrison City-Export Road, will reach its 25th year in business. It offers community members a space to paint ceramics, make pottery, paint canvases, create mosaics and decorate stepping...
Westmoreland developments: Penn Township art shop celebrates 25 years, Grateful Dead-inspired restaurant opens in Latrobe
Carrie Schramm is all in for another quarter century operating her Penn Township craft shop. In October, the Crafty Shack, located along Harrison City-Export Road, will reach its 25th year in business. It offers community members a space to paint ceramics, make pottery, paint canvases, create mosaics and decorate stepping...
Grateful Dead-inspired restaurant opens in Latrobe
It’s been nearly a decade since Latrobe resident Richie Matsko first wrote down his ideas for a restaurant menu inspired by his favorite band, The Grateful Dead. Matsko brought his vision to life Feb. 7, opening a bar and restaurant in Latrobe dubbed Terrapin Bistro. It was inspired by the...
St. Agnes Church resumes fish fries after yearlong pause to renovate social hall
St. Agnes Church in North Huntingdon has its annual fish fries down to a science — at least that’s how volunteer Diane Pesarsick describes it. For four weeks leading up to Easter, more than 120 churchgoers get into a rhythm. Boxes of food — fish, french fries and ingredients for...
Ligonier Country Market proposes borough as new host
The Ligonier Country Market has proposed shifting its regular event from a 9.6-acre Loyalhanna Watershed Association property to downtown Ligonier Borough. The Country Market — launched about 50 years ago — has been held on the watershed association’s property off of Route 30 in Ligonier Township for the past 25...
Hempfield Area considers replacing 4 high school grass fields with turf
Hempfield Area High School may replace four grass athletic fields with synthetic turf, Superintendent Mark Holtzman said. The district is eyeing its baseball, softball and multipurpose grass fields for replacement, Holtzman said. The school board will vote on the matter next week. Because of snowmelt and spring rainfall, the district’s...
Ferrante’s Lakeview on Route 30 to change hands
Christina Augustine is following in her grandfather’s footsteps — and her mother’s and her aunt’s. Next month, Augustine, 42, of Addison will become the general manager of Ferrante’s Lakeview — a restaurant and special events venue that has operated off Route 30 in Hempfield for about 70 years. Her grandfather,...
Green Beacon Gallery in downtown Greensburg searches for a new home
Greensburg was not a random choice for Phil and Steve Harrold’s art and music gallery. The initials of the West Pittsburgh Street venue, called Green Beacon Gallery, align with a common abbreviation for the name of the city — which the brothers deemed deserving of an open stage for local...
Local teachers benefit from Seton Hill program on Holocaust, genocide education
For Leticia Fournier, the religious affiliation of Christ the Divine Teacher School in Latrobe makes education on the Holocaust even more important. Fournier has taught the school’s Holocaust studies course for eight years. First launched in 2004, the class was a partnership with nearby Beth Israel synagogue, which closed in...
Penn Township accuses The Club at Blackthorne of violating the municipality’s zoning ordinance
The Club at Blackthorne, a private event and wedding venue, is in violation of Penn Township’s zoning ordinance, the municipality’s solicitor said Thursday. The 36,000-square-foot Club at Blackthorne is located off of Harrison City-Export Road in the township’s Blackthorne Estates housing community, which is accompanied by a golf course. The...
Residents weigh in on Penn Township’s latest rezoning proposal
Penn Township resident Pati Livengood has mixed feelings about the municipality’s proposed zoning changes. The township has worked through a rezoning plan in recent years to diversify its tax base with more businesses — a goal laid out in the municipality’s 2020 comprehensive plan. About 84% of the township’s real...
Owner of Ruthie’s Diner dies nearly 3 weeks after fire destroyed longtime Ligonier Township restaurant
Doris Ruth “Ruthie” Stevens, owner of Ruthie’s Diner, died at 92 on Saturday — nearly three weeks after the Ligonier Township restaurant was destroyed in a fire. Stevens died in her home in Jenner, Somerset County, according to an obituary. She was born in Addison, also in Somerset County, in...
Diocese of Pittsburgh to close 7 churches next month
The Diocese of Pittsburgh will close seven of eight churches in its Saint Joseph the Worker Parish next month. During Saturday evening and Sunday morning Masses, pastor Rev. Michael Stumpf read churchgoers a letter written by Bishop Mark Eckman, outlining the closure of the seven churches — Good Shepherd in...
Collectors at South Hills Coin Club show weigh in on value of penny, precious metals
Monessen resident Dave Burdis still remembers the day his father, a bank teller, brought home a half dime coin from work. Burdis, now 74, was just 9 at the time. “I was amazed at it. I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “A half dime? What is that? So I researched...
Verizon’s FIOS TV customers will be able to watch the Super Bowl, Olympics on WPXI
FIOS TV customers will be able to watch the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics on Pittsburgh’s WPXI after a dispute that started in December between the Verizon television service and Cox Media Group. Cox Media is WPXI’s parent company. Verizon failed to reach an agreement on a new retransmission...
Boil water advisory impacting 95K in Allegheny, Washington counties could take ‘several days’ to lift
About 95,000 Pennsylvania American Water customers, including those in select Allegheny County communities, may be boiling their water for days after an advisory was issued Saturday, a company spokesman said. A power surge early Saturday morning depleted water storage at a tank in Washington County, the water company said in...
‘The love is still here’: Record search reveals Greensburg couple’s 75th anniversary is their 74th
Greensburg couple Ed and Sally Wagner have been together so long they forgot the year they were married. Ed, 95, and Sally, 92, told their children they would celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary this coming Monday. However, a recent Ancestry.com search by son-in-law Mark Aitken revealed a copy of the...
Ace Bartenders owners purchase The Club at Blackthorne for $3.9M amid zoning dispute
The future of a planned restaurant within Penn Township’s Blackthorne Estates hinges on an upcoming zoning meeting, as new ownership faces a formal challenge from developers over the facility’s use. Blackthorne Investors is challenging the occupancy permit issued to The Club at Blackthorne, arguing against the operation of a restaurant...
Pittsburgh man accused of smuggling synthetic cannabinoids to Allegheny County Jail inmates
A Pittsburgh man was arrested and accused Tuesday of smuggling synthetic cannabinoids to Allegheny County jail inmates, according to court documents. Tyrique Craighead, 33, of Pittsburgh’s Perry North neighborhood, placed the drugs — concealed in an open bag of nacho cheese Doritos — in a trash can inside the bathroom...
Clairton Coke Works to resume work at battery that saw fatal explosions in August
Almost exactly six months after two workers were killed and 11 injured in a series of explosions at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works, the nation’s largest coke manufacturing facility will resume operation at one of its batteries Thursday. The first of three explosions occurred at the facility around 10:45 a.m....
Plum police: ICE detains Scott Township man at court hearing after he tried to run
A Scott Township man arrested last year in connection with a series of road rage incidents was detained by ICE agents following an altercation at the district court office in Plum, according to court documents filed Wednesday. Vishavdeep Singh, 22, of Scott was charged in November with multiple felonies after...
Penn-Trafford School Board renews superintendent contract for 5 more years
Superintendent Matthew Harris will lead the Penn-Trafford School District for another five years following a vote by the school board this week. Harris came to the district in 2007. He worked in various administrative roles — including assistant principal of Level Green and Harrison Park Elementary schools, director of student...
Westmoreland County Community College to launch 2-year engineering program shortly after opening makerspace
Matthew Reed, vice president for academic affairs at Westmoreland County Community College, didn’t plan for the launch of the school’s new engineering program to coincide with the opening of its makerspace. “It’s kind of a happy accident,” he said with a laugh. The college’s board of trustees approved the two-year...
